


The Centennial

by Professor_Saber



Series: The Emma Jane Adventures [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Kid Fic, whouffaldi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 15:23:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11854365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Professor_Saber/pseuds/Professor_Saber
Summary: Clara and the Doctor indulge their daughter's new obsession.





	The Centennial

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've been doing little baby fics as part of my drabble collection, _[Portraits of a Romance](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11040609/chapters/24610302)_ , and I've decided to spin that off and write about Twelve and Clara's child here. For some background, the "canon divergence" occurred somewhere in Season 9, where Twelve made Clara part-Time Lady.
> 
> Note there are references to Twelve and Clara's sex life, hence the rating.

Clara sighed and sat against the TARDIS in the grass. The Doctor had picked a really nice place. Safe, for once. She looked up at the giant ringed planet hanging in the sky. Their one truly safe haven in all the universe.

Down the hill, the Doctor was playing with their daughter. She was dressed in a khaki safari-type outfit, and they were trudging through the tall grass, the Doctor wielding his sonic screwdriver like a sword.

Emma Jane Oswald was just fifteen years old, but she appeared physically closer to ten. Slow, Time Lady aging. Clara was not looking forward to the two decades’ worth of teenager-dom that were coming. Especially since she had a suspicion that it might be longer than that; she vaguely recalled Susan mentioning that she first came to Earth at the age of ninety, but passed for sixteen. Meanwhile, Clara herself was pushing 165 and had only to deal with the occasional gray hair.

Maybe that’s why she’d gotten herself pregnant again: make sure their was still a sweet little kid around the house. Or it was that she was getting lax with birth control because she was _a hundred and fucking sixty_ ; either way.

Clara watched their daughter for a moment before losing herself in her paperback, a very trashy and erotic romance novel from the eighty-third century.

“Look, Mummy!” Emma Jane called, bounding up the hill, holding a small ball.

“What is it, Emmy?” Clara asked.

“I caught a Pokemon!” her daughter said, throwing the ball. Sure enough, a real as life Pikachu emerged from the ball in a flash of light.

“Holy!” Clara shouted. “Doctor!”

Her husband laughed. “Holograms, Clara.”

Cautiously, Clara reached out a hand to pet the animal. Instead, her hand passed through it, causing the image to flicker.

“I’m sorry, Mummy,” Emma Jane said. “I thought it was cool. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me,” Clara said sweetly. “It was just a bit surprising, that’s all.”

“Okay,” Emma Jane said, walking over and hugging her mother.

“Don’t think you’ve upset me,” Clara said. “Not ever.” She rolled her eyes at her husband. “Just _where_ did you get that?”

“Workshop,” the Doctor said. “Very simple. Projector and a tennis ball.”

“Mm-hmm,” Clara said. She looked at her daughter. “I bet there’s more Pokemon out there. Go get ‘em.”

As their daughter ran back down the hill, the Doctor helped Clara to her feet.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“Don’t be,” she said. “Though I’m tempted to whack you with my paperback. You know, reinforce the lesson.”

“Please don’t,” he said.

Clara laughed. “Not really that serious. You could’ve told me she was into Pokemon.”

“Oh?”

“That was huge when I was her age,” Clara said. “I even remember some of it after all this time. Maybe we should take her back to 1998, when it was _such_ a huge craze.”

“Maybe,” the Doctor said. “But the centennial might be a better idea.”

“Centennial?” Clara asked. “It lasts that long?”

“Enough to be a major faction in the Fandom Wars,” the Doctor said.

“The Fandom Wars?”

“Mm,” he said. “Early twenty second century. And no one expected it; Pokemon was a pretty small fandom at that point, but in the run-up they won the Nintendo Civil War, which made them a major player.”

“You know, I can never tell if these things you mention really happened or if you’re just making them up.”

He grinned and waggled his eyebrows at her.

She laughed, leaning on the Doctor as they watched Emma Jane chase her holographic Pokemon through the grass. Clara patted her stomach.

“How’s he doing?” the Doctor asked.

“Pretty sure it’s a she,” Clara said. “So you’re going to insist on Petronella, aren’t you?”

“Maybe Sarah Petronella?” the Doctor asked.

“Maybe,” Clara said. “She’s sleeping now, I think.” She sighed. “Thank you.”

The Doctor snorted. “You’re thanking me?”

“For this,” Clara said, watching their daughter. “For making all this possible.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Of course, my Clara.”

 

* * *

 

Their TARDIS hummed softly as they flew through the Vortex. Ambling about, no destination in mind. It was their MO, nowadays. Just popping into St. Luke’s in 2033, on occasion. Seeing Bill and Heather. Trying not to mope about the empty vault.

Emma Jane was asleep in her room, having exhausted herself chasing holographic Pokemon all day. Clara sat in one of the pilot’s chairs, peeking over her book and watching her husband work on the console.

“So,” she said, turning a page. “How’s it going?”

He looked up, confused.

Clara smiled. “What exactly are you working on down there?”

“The transdimensional artron regulators,” he said. “They’ve been acting up lately. You’ll notice we missed our last landing mark by eight hours.”

“Isn’t that _normal_ for the TARDIS?”

The Doctor grunted.

Clara set her book down. “Well, you look very sexy, working.”

“Well,” he said, smiling, “you look very sexy, reading.”

“Thanks,” she said, picking her book back up, but winking at him over the top of the pages.

“Clara,” he began.

“Our daughter’s asleep,” she said, grinning.

“You’re _pregnant_ ,” he said.

“So?” Clara asked. “Come on, when was the last time we had sex in the console room?”

The Doctor sighed. “Probably after the incident on Talos VII.”

“That was a long time ago,” Clara said. “And that’s what we’re calling it? An ‘incident’?”

“You have a better word for it?”

“I think ‘catastrophe’ might be a better term,” Clara said. “Or maybe ‘clusterfuck.’”

The Doctor groaned. “Clara, are we arguing over terminology or are we shagging?”

Clara grinned, setting her book down. “Shagging.”

 

* * *

 

They took Emma to 2096 Tokyo a few weeks later. The entire city was decked out for the celebration, as if it were New Year’s Eve. A parade of balloon Pokemon was passing on the street below.

“Daddy,” Emma Jane asked, “why are the signs still in Japanese?”

“I turned off the TARDIS translation,” he said. “It’s important for you to learn new languages. Sorry, Clara.”

“What do you mean?” Clara asked. “I’m a hundred sixty; I’ve picked up Japanese.”

She walked over to a nearby young woman and asked, {How are enjoying the celebrations?}

The young woman was a little startled. {Very much, thank you. And you?}

{I go nowhere,} Clara said, nodding to herself. {For approximately 100 years, really is.}

The woman frowned. {I don’t follow.}

Clara gave the woman an amused look, as if she was the problem. {How to make a 100 years,} she said.

“Clara,” the Doctor said, stifling a laugh. “Please stop.”

“Excuse me,” she said. “I’m talking to, I’m sorry—.”

{What’s your name?} she asked the young woman.

{Erika,} she said. {Like the gym leader in the first generation.}

Clara paused, her head bouncing along as she tried to understand the words.

{I’m so sorry about this,} the Doctor said to Erika. {She thinks she can speak Japanese.}

{It's the story of Japan!} Clara protested, thinking she was insisting that she could in fact speak the language.

“Mummy,” Emma Jane said, facepalming. “Please stop, it’s embarrassing.”

{Miss,} Erika said slowly, a hand on Clara’s shoulder, {you’re father’s right. You’re not speaking Japanese.}

{Her husband is,} Clara said, gesturing between herself and the Doctor.

{Miss, you just told me that he’s _my_ husband,} Erika said.

Clara blushed, finally getting the message.

“You deal with things,” she said to the Doctor, stepping back.

The Doctor introduced Emma to Erika, who seemed genuinely happy to talk to their daughter. Emma’s Japanese was impeccable.

 

* * *

 

“You have to admit, Clara, that was pretty funny.”

“Shut up, Doctor. Shut up.”

“Seriously,” he asked, laughing as they stepped back into the TARDIS at the end of the day. “Why’d you think you could speak Japanese?”

Clara growled. “I read the _Kojiki_ one night in the original.” At the Doctor’s confused look, she added, “It was in the library.”

“Daddy,” Emma Jane said, “don’t be mean.”

Clara sighed. “He’s not being _mean_. Just annoying.”

“Clara, you said ‘how to make a hundred years’ when you tried to tell her you were amazed it was the centennial.”

“I’m going to bed,” Clara announced, leaving the console room.

The Doctor was silent for a long time, thinking.

“I think she’s upset,” he said.

Emma Jane rolled her eyes. “She is, Daddy. You’ll need to apologize.” Emma reached into her bag and handed her father the cue cards.

 

* * *

 

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said, poking his head into their bedroom.

“Don’t be,” Clara said. She was reading a book entitled _Teach Yourself Japanese_. She offered him a weak smile. “I’m sure I’ll find it very amusing in a day or two.”

“Well, then I guess I don’t need _these_ ,” the Doctor said, setting the stack of cue cards on the dresser.

“Don’t be so sure,” Clara said, smirking. “I think the problem was that I was speaking _Old_ Japanese. You know, like Old English.”

The Doctor glanced at his cue cards. The top one read, in Clara’s hand, _When at all possible, DO agree with me when I’m upset_.

“Yep, that’s probably it, I agree completely.”

Clara laughed. “Liar.”

“Am I that transparent?” he said, sitting next to her on the bed.

“No,” she said. “I just know you very well.” She leaned over and kissed him. “Where’s Emma?”

“In her room,” he said. “I told her I’d help her put her new toys away.”

“Dear god, we’re spoiling her so much,” Clara said. She sighed and patted her stomach. “You’d better help her, then. Lord knows I can’t.”

“Sure you can’t,” he said, kissing her forehead. “How long are you going to play the pregnancy card?”

“Maybe till this new one’s fifteen?”

The Doctor laughed. “Good to know, Clara. Good to know.”

 

* * *

 

{Japan is talking about!} Clara said when the Doctor came for bed.

“Oh, so close, my Clara,” he said. “So close.”

“Shut up, you,” she said, kissing him.

**Author's Note:**

> Their daughter's into Pokemon because I was as a kid.
> 
> The Japanese "translations"/reverse-Engrish were provided by translationparty.com.


End file.
